Friday, March 03, 2006

Er, could you get this picture off my head, please?

So the Bush-man is in India and we are all suitably a-twitter, at least in the media. But aside from the buddy vibe that he and our Mr. Prime Minister seem to have suddenly discovered, the big nu-killer (Bush’s pronunciation, not mine) deal that is supposedly afoot, the impact on geo-politics in the South Asia region, the ramifications of our stance on Iran and future trade with the U.S. that this visit will surely bring about, I have one important point that I am quite concerned about, and it is this.There are the customary protestors in India who are extremely not happy with Dubya’s visit. Maybe they are just mad that they never had a red-carpet welcome or a Presidential banquet hosted in their honor. Whatever the case may be, they have chosen to show their displeasure by parading a donkey on the street with a picture of George W. plastered on its forehead.I must strenuously object to this. Aside from the fact that it reflects very badly on our heritage of warm hospitality, I happen to think donkeys don’t deserve this sort of treatment. No, really. I like donkeys and think they are rather cute and severely misunderstood. Moreover, if the donkey had a choice of which human political bigwig’s picture it would like on its forehead, do you think it would have chosen this particular one?Exactly. So please, let’s just take a step back here and keep donkeys out of the whole equation. I think this is a reasonable request. I hope that the powers that be who decide the poster-on-a-donkey component of any major diplomatic visit will take heed and see that no donkeys are harassed the next time a certain (or uncertain) foreign dignitary decides to visit.